Data Warehouse Meta-model
The meta-model of the Commerce Server 2002 Data Warehouse is a set of definitions used to construct the Data Warehouse logical schema, and map that logical schema to a physical schema. These definitions, or meta-data, describe classes, data members, relations, and keys, which are abstractions of SQL tables, columns and foreign key relations. The primary purpose of the meta-data is to separate the logical schema from the physical schema. You can access and extend the logical schema without having detailed knowledge of the underlying physical store.
Using the values given to the meta-data objects, the OLE DB Provider for Commerce Server creates the physical tables and columns to store the user data. The OLE DB Provider for Commerce Server ensures consistency and simplifies the use of the Data Warehouse. For information about creating a new class of objects, see Extending the Data Warehouse Logical Schema.
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Caution
To avoid damaging the schema, use the OLE DB Provider for Commerce Server to access objects.
When attempting to access the meta-data tables through Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), fields appear in the returned Record object in addition to those listed in the tables. ADO does not recognize the objects contained in these fields and produces a run-time error. To access these objects, use OLE DB Provider for Commerce Server. The following is a partial list of these columns (ADO Field objects):
__COMMIT, __NEXT, ALLMEMBERS, ATTRIBUTES, CHILDCLSDEF, CHILDREFMEMDEF, CLASSGUID, CLASS, DEFAULTVIEW, KEYDEFINITIONS, KEYMEMBERS, MEMBER, MEMDEFS, MEMNONREFDEFS, PARENTCLASSES, PARENTCLSDEF, PARENTKEYDEF, PERSISTENTKEYMEMBERS, REFERENCEMEMBERS, REFMEMBERS, RELMEMBERDEFS, TOPLEVELMEMBERS
This section contains:
- Data Warehouse Name and Value Conventions. Describes the values used in the meta-data tables.
- Class Definition Meta-data. Describes the attributes used for the class definitions.
- Member Definition Meta-data. Describes the attributes used for the class member definitions.
- Key Definition Meta-data. Describes the attributes used for the class key definitions.
- Key Member Definition Meta-data. Describes the attributes used for the key member definitions.
- Relation Definition Meta-data. Describes the attributes used for the class relation definitions.
- Relation Member Definition Meta-data. Describes the attributes used for the class member relation definitions.
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